Thermoelectric effect

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Thermoelectric effect" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Thermoelectric effect
Principles Thermoelectric effect Seebeck effect Peltier effect Thomson effect Seebeck coefficient Ettingshausen effect Nernst effect
Applications Thermoelectric materials Thermocouple Thermopile Thermoelectric cooling Thermoelectric generator Radioisotope thermoelectric generator Automotive thermoelectric generator
v t e

The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa via a thermocouple.^[1] A thermoelectric device creates a voltage when there is a different temperature on each side. Conversely, when a voltage is applied to it, heat is transferred from one side to the other, creating a temperature difference.

This effect can be used to generate electricity, measure temperature or change the temperature of objects. Because the direction of heating and cooling is affected by the applied voltage, thermoelectric devices can be used as temperature controllers.

The term "thermoelectric effect" encompasses three separately identified effects: the Seebeck effect (temperature differences cause electromotive forces), the Peltier effect (thermocouples create temperature differences), and the Thomson effect (the Seebeck coefficient varies with temperature). The Seebeck and Peltier effects are different manifestations of the same physical process; textbooks may refer to this process as the Peltier–Seebeck effect (the separation derives from the independent discoveries by French physicist Jean Charles Athanase Peltier and Baltic German physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck). The Thomson effect is an extension of the Peltier–Seebeck model and is credited to Lord Kelvin.

Joule heating, the heat that is generated whenever a current is passed through a conductive material, is not generally termed a thermoelectric effect. The Peltier–Seebeck and Thomson effects are thermodynamically reversible,^[2] whereas Joule heating is not.